The Federal Bureau of Prisons’
Monitoring of Mail for High-Risk Inmates

Evaluation and Inspections Report I-2006-009
September 2006
Office of the Inspector General

Scope and Methodology of OIG Review

This review focused on the BOP’s process for reading the mail of terrorist and other high-risk inmates, such as gang leaders, in medium- and high-security and administrative maximum institutions. The review also focused on the BOP’s foreign language translation services, which may be required for monitoring inmate mail, telephone calls, and visits.

Our fieldwork, conducted from June to December 2005, included in-person and telephone interviews, document reviews, site visits to BOP institutions, data analysis, and direct observation of mail and telephone monitoring.

Interviews

We interviewed 179 officials and staff from the BOP, the FBI, the Criminal Division, and a USAO. Table 1 lists the sites visited or contacted and the officials we interviewed.

We reviewed data from a week’s mail volume from the BOP institutions we visited. We asked the 10 institutions to record the number of incoming and outgoing letters during the week of November 21-25, 2005. We also analyzed data on the monitoring of inmate telephone calls from the BOP’s INTRUDR system.

We reviewed BOP Program Statements, budget documents, Post Orders, manuals, reports, memorandums, monthly intelligence reports, and SIS record keeping logs. We also reviewed the Department of Justice Strategic Plan for 2003-2008 and Department memorandums and guidance concerning SAMs. Additionally, we reviewed congressional testimony, news articles, and other reports that were related to the monitoring of inmate communications.